Fox News Channel outdraws NBC, CBS and ABC during primetime for third consecutive week
Fox News averaged 2.4 million viewers during primetime compared to NBC's 2.2 million and two million apiece for CBS and ABC.
Since Memorial Day, Fox News has averaged three million viewers in weekday primetime, which also leads all of television, including ABC, NBC and CBS. Fox News is also topping broadcast competition among weekday primetime viewership since the official start of the summer on June 20.
Fox News has now topped all broadcast competition three times in 2025 for Monday-Sunday primetime and seven times with weekday primetime viewership. The last time Fox News accomplished this feat for three straight weeks over the broadcast networks was in 2020.
Fox News averaged 1.5 million total day viewers to lead all of cable and aired 97 of the top 100 cable telecasts for the week, despite Wimbledon tennis coverage.
"The Five," with Dana Perino, Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters, Jessica Tarlov and Harold Ford, averaged 3.5 million viewers and 376,000 among the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults age 25-54 to lead all of cable in both categories.
"Special Report with Bret Baier," "The Ingraham Angle," "Jesse Watters Primetime" and "Gutfeld!" all had strong weeks, while Fox News also saw its daytime programs outpace the broadcast competition.
"The Will Cain Show," "Outnumbered," "America Reports with John Roberts and Sandra Smith," Martha MacCallum's "The Story," "The Faulkner Focus" and "America's Newsroom" with Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer all topped "CBS Mornings," NBC's "Today Third Hour" and ABC's "GMA3."
Fox News recently wrapped up the second quarter of 2025 in dominant fashion, surpassing ABC and NBC among viewers during the quarter and topping CBS among both total viewers and the demo for the month of June.
It was the sixth straight quarter that saw Fox News top all of cable among both total day and primetime viewers.
Ratings data courtesy of Nielsen Media Research.
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Yahoo
a few seconds ago
- Yahoo
Why isn't Fox News covering the Wall Street Journal's bombshell scoop of the Trump-Epstein letter?
The political media world was thrown into chaos Thursday night when the Wall Street Journal published a bombshell story about a birthday letter Donald Trump apparently wrote to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, prompting the president to sue the publication and Rupert Murdoch, the paper's owner and founder of Fox News. On Friday, the president filed a libel lawsuit against the right-wing media mogul and The Wall Street Journal's parent companies, News Corp and Dow Jones, following the newspaper's publication of Trump's alleged birthday letter to Epstein. However, regular consumers of Fox News may be oblivious to this blockbuster report – that sparked outcry from MAGA supporters and seemingly prompted the president to ask Attorney General Pam Bondi to release 'pertinent' grand jury testimony in the Epstein case – because the conservative cable giant has avoided mention of it. At the time of publication, based on a review of transcripts of Fox News' on-air coverage since the WSJ published the story, the network only once briefly hinted at the report on the president's alleged 'bawdy' card to Epstein in 2003. And in that instance, the host never delivered the promised segment about the story. Midway through her program on Thursday evening, Laura Ingraham groused that 'Democrats pretend to care about an issue that has the podcast world going crazy' before noting that they're 'asking for transparency.' At that point, she teased that 'we have new news coming on about this as well from The Wall Street Journal, a new report tonight.' However on returning from her commercial break, Ingraham only focused on criticizing Democrats for becoming fixated on Epstein and the Trump administration's memo earlier this month, which had concluded that the disgraced financier kept no 'client list' of high-profile figures and died by suicide. Fox News has avoided discussing the Wall Street Journal's blockbuster story about Donald Trump's alleged 'bawdy' birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein. ((AP Photo/Evan Vucci)) In the end, there was no 'new news' about the WSJ story – and that has been the case in the Fox News universe since. Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On the network's digital site, the only two Epstein-related stories that have been published since Thursday evening are both on Trump's directive to Bondi to work on releasing some portions of the Epstein grand jury transcripts. Both articles sidestep any mentions about the WSJ's eye-popping story. In the past 24 hours, the network's hosts and commentators have occasionally discussed the Epstein saga, but only to either boast of how a recent poll found that Trump is still massively popular with Republicans, despite the turmoil in MAGA world over the Epstein memo, or to report on the president's promise to release 'pertinent' grand jury testimony in the case. 'Donald Trump won seven swing states and the popular vote. His approval rating went up significantly in spite of the Epstein scandal talk going on and people anticipated his numbers would go down,' host and Trump confidant Sean Hannity declared on Friday morning's broadcast of Fox & Friends, the president's favorite morning show. It would be the only mention of Epstein during the entire three hours of the program. White House correspondent Peter Doocy would briefly point out during his on-air dispatches Friday that Trump had made a 'public call' for Bondi to move to release grand jury testimony, adding that the Justice Department's next step would be to assign a judge in New York to review the transcripts. Shannon Bream, the network's chief legal correspondent, also appeared for a segment to discuss the legal procedures required for the publication of grand jury testimony. Laura Ingraham briefly teased a segment about the Wall Street Journal's report — but never came back to it after a commercial break. (Fox News) The lack of Fox News coverage on a sister publication's big scoop probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise, considering the symbiotic relationship Fox News has with Trump and how the channel's programming has largely been tailored not to anger him. With the president declaring war on Fox News' owner, it was basically a given that the story would be ignored on the network's airwaves. 'I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his 'pile of garbage' newspaper,' Trump blared on Truth Social Friday. 'That will be an interesting experience!!!' Rather than tempt fate and further inflame the president and his top loyalists by placing their anchors and pundits in the awkward position of defending the WSJ and their boss amid the MAGA pile-on, it appears the network has erred on the side of caution and won't touch it – at least for the time being. Of course, that's essentially been the network's modus operandi since the Epstein controversy blew up early last week, and particularly after the president first ordered his supporters to 'stop talking about' the deceased sex offender last weekend. The Monday after Trump's Truth Social tirade, the network only mentioned Epstein eight times on its airwaves. The network's avoidance of the Epstein saga has even led other right-wing outlets and personalities to mock Fox News for being 'terrified' of covering the story because they 'don't want to p*** off' Trump. Still, there are some Murdoch employees who are willing to bring up the WSJ story. Riley Gaines, the culture warrior who hosts a podcast for Murdoch-owned Outkick and regularly appears on Fox News, backed Trump's legal threats against the newspaper and her boss. 'Sue them into oblivion,' she tweeted Thursday night.
Gizmodo
2 minutes ago
- Gizmodo
A Brief Guide to All the Taika Waititi Projects We're Still Waiting For
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News broke this week that Waititi is attached to helm a new live-action take on the violent comic book character, previously seen in movies made in 1995 (with Sylvester Stallone) and 2012 (with Karl Urban). The Hollywood Reporter noted there's a script by Drew Pearce (Fall Guy; Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) but no studio attached yet. According to the trade, 'sources say Pearce and Waititi both grew up with the books and are friends who have been trying to find a project to work on together for years.' THR further notes that 'the pitch is said to take inspiration more from the comics than the previous screen iterations, leaning into the world-building and dark humor,' which sounds great, though this detail does not: 'The desire is to see the movie launch a Dredd universe that could be explored with additional movies and shows across various platforms.' Why though? Probably just a fleeting dream at this point, given that this werewolf-focused sequel to What We Do in the Shadows (the movie) was being talked about before What We Do in the Shadows (the TV show) arrived. But the show ended late last year after six triumphant seasons, with many fans still wishing it could continue. Might We're Wolves emerge from the darkness after all? Just a few weeks ago, we learned that Warner Bros.' long-teased Akira movie was being taken off the table. Waititi's name was one of many bandied about to direct when it was still in play, and he certainly seemed enthusiastic—although in 2019 he explained he'd had to step back from it due to his Marvel commitments. But just because Warner Bros. isn't going to tackle Akira doesn't mean the manga adaptation won't ever happen; another studio might well pick up the newly available rights. Maybe Waititi will circle back when and if that happens? Picture it: summer, 2021. We received an intriguing update on the animated Flash Gordon movie Waititi had first teased in 2019. The game changed, and now it was going to be a live-action Flash Gordon movie! Even a few years later, it still seems like an ideal outlet for Waititi's irreverent style and bombastic approach to superhero action, but so far there's been no fresh momentum on this one. In late 2021, Waititi teased another fascinating project: an adaptation of The Incal, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean Giraud's (aka Moebius) sci-fi masterpiece. 'The films and graphic novels of Alejandro Jodorowsky have influenced me and so many others for so long,' Waititi told the Hollywood Reporter at the time. 'I was stunned to be given the opportunity to bring his iconic characters to life.' We're not mad at it either, other than the fact that it hasn't happened yet. 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Associated Press
2 minutes ago
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EPA eliminates research and development office, begins layoffs
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